It is vital to have a fast loading website. First of all it is very pleasant for your visitors to reach that information quickly, but most importantly it is necessary to have a fast loading website if you want to rank higher in Google and boost your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Studies show that a 1- second delay in page load time can reduce the conversions by almost 7%. Almost 53% of website visitors will leave the website if it loads more than 3 seconds.
As was mentioned before, fast loading websites are crucial for Google. Starting May 2021 Google started using your website’s loading speed as a ranking factor.
Ok, we figured out that it is very important to have a fast loading website. But how to check the loading speed of your website?
The easiest way to check it is using the plugin MonsterInsights. You don’t need to check it in some different window or program, you can see all the information right in your WordPress dashboard.
MonsterInsights is a universal plugin, as it helps with your Google Analytics too, you can add it easily to your website without editing any code. You can track anything you need using this plugin, such as eCommerce, file downloads, form conversations and more, just using one plugin.
To be able to use all those features, you need to download MonsterInsights on your WordPress website. Then you can connect your Google Analytics with your website. If you need a step by step tutorial, you can read this article – How to add Google Analytics to your WordPress website.
As soon as you activate this plugin you can go to “Insights” then choose ”Reports” and “Site Speed”. That’s it. Easy, isn’t it? You should see an overall score of your website loading time for different devices (desktop and mobile) and many different important metrics of your website, including tips on how to improve it in case you need to do so.
Here’s some important information you should know when you see your metrics:
Server Response Time – It is time for the server to respond to a data request and load the website.
Time to Interactive – this is the time between when the website first starts to load and when it is totally ready for the reader and not loading anymore.
First Contentful Paint – This metric measures loading time of your visual elements such as your photos, themes, font. (Pro tip, try to use one or two fonts on your website, to minimize this loading time)
Total Blocking Time – This is that time when people see your website, but still cannot interact with it.
You know how to check the loading time of your website now. I would like to share with you some tips on how to improve it in case you need it. There can be many different reasons why your website loads slower than it can, it might be even a couple of reasons.
I will tell you most likely reasons you have, but again, check and analyze it yourself if it is a weak part in your website.
Most common ways to improve loading time of your website:
- Right type Website Hosting
It is very important to have good and reliable hosting. I have an article about it, you can read it here. This website is running on Siteground, so far this is one of the best hostings I have tried.
- Use a caching plugin to improve your response time
- Optimize your images (upload proper size and use special plugins)
- Don’t upload video and audio files directly in the website, embed them.
- Use CDN (Content Delivery Network) to speed up loading time for visitors from different countries
- Keep your WordPress updated
- Use properly coded theme which is optimized for SEO
- Avoid using many custom fonts in your website
- Deactivate and delete plugins you don’t use, try to use not so many plugins if it is possible
- Use lazy load to improve website speed.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions.
